Friday, June 5, 2015

One of my favorite memories of visits to my grandparents' farm was going into the study to look through Grandma's horse books. I inevitably selected her boxed set of Thelwell books as my reading material for an afternoon and curled up on the couch to giggle at the cartoons. Norman Thelwell, a British writer and cartoonist, had a unique and hilarious perspective on country life and a particular insight into the minds of small, clever ponies and their often unwitting victims riders. Thelwell's ponies were delightfully fat, hairy, and naughty.

Thelwell's first pony cartoon was published in 1953, and his first book of humorous pony illustrations, Angels on Horseback,
followed soon after in 1957. The demand for his work, especially the
ponies, was tremendous, and not long afterward, licensed Thelwell
pony models were introduced to the market.

The earliest I know of were made by a company called Plastech and were
probably made in the 1960s and/or 1970s. I've seen examples in grey,
brown, and palomino. They all have rooted hair, tack, and a cute little
rider (Penelope, perhaps?).

Check out the pony's expression. Classic.

In the 1980s, Beswick and several other ceramics companies made a variety of Thelwell ponies in porcelain and sometimes resin.

A seemingly well-behaved Beswick Thelwell.

Beswick's "Point of Departure," rather less well-behaved

But for the purposes of this post, I am primarily interested in the "Kipper" Thelwell model made by Breyer as there has been some misinformation about the piece floating around lately. Kipper debuted in 1986 and was of great interest to my young self, but apparently was less so to adult collectors at the time (the models did not sell well). The 1986 dealer catalog featured only Kipper but alluded to the production of two other ponies, Midget (pinto) and Pumpkin (palomino).

1986 Breyer dealer catalog

The smaller 1986 "box catalog" featured a picture of all three ponies.

1986 box catalog

All four ponies pictured in the catalogs appear to have the same bodies, but the heads and ear positions vary a bit. According to Breyer historian Nancy Young, as per a conversation with Peter Stone, these ponies were resin-cast prototypes, not plastic models. The dappled brown Kipper in the dealer catalog was auctioned off at the first BreyerFest, and Peter noted at the time that it was one of two, the other of which was in his personal collection. Presumably, the pony Peter kept is the true bay shown in the box catalog photo. The Midget and Pumpkin prototypes probably also still belong to Peter.

The Kipper model that Breyer ultimately produced had a very similar head to the prototypes but a different body.

A bit of quick research and some help from the British Model Horse Collectors group on Facebook revealed that these little Thelwell wannabes are actually toys based on a BBC children's program called "Star Hill Ponies" which ran for several seasons beginning in 1998. It was also broadcast in Welsh in Wales, hence the "Licensed by S4C" bit of copyright on the pony's belly. Episodes can be found on Youtube.

Star Hill Ponies "Molly" (Photo from eBay)

Star Hill Ponies "Scruffy" (Photo from eBay)

The back of the packaging card showing the various ponies.

The Star Hill Ponies are undeniably cute, but they are definitely not Breyers nor are they related to Thelwells in any way. They can often be obtained on eBay for less than $10 each.

I hope this post clears up some of the confusion about what is and is not a Breyer Thelwell. All of the ponies shown here, regardless of maker, are collectible in their own fashion, but hopefully my little bit of sleuthing will save collectors from paying far too much for a models that are not Breyers.

About Me

I'm a longtime collector, hobbyist, and customizer who dabbles in a little of everything---Breyers, Hartlands, Stones, CMs, resins, chinas, hobby history, horse racing, etc. Be prepared for rambles on any of the above subjects and more!